530

AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
Mr. KincHELOE. I am trying to understand what a great benefit
this has been to the American farmer of having a tariff of 42 cents
on wheat.

The CrAamrMAN. Mr. Lankford, the committee will be glad to
hear vou.
STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM C. LANKFORD, REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF GEORGIA

Mr. LankrForp. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee,
I have attended all these hearings before this committee, which have
lasted for six weeks or longer, and wish to state that I have enjoyed
them very much. I have received much very valuable information
from the various witnesses who have appeared here, and from the
suggestions and questions of members of the committee. I have
ascertained the slant of various people on this great problem of farm
legislation. There is one thing, though, that I knew before I came
to these hearings, and my information has not been strengthened in
that respect; that is, that the American farmer really needs some
helpful legislation. There is a real farm problem to be solved by
this Congress, some future Congress, or left unsolved.

I sympathize with the farmer. I was born on a farm, and can
truthfully say I was born “way down South in Dixie,” “way down
upon the Suwanee River,” in a country log house, in a Georgia
cotton field, at “home, sweet home.”

Mr. CrArkE. On Sunday?

Mr. Lankrorp. I am not sure whether I was born on Sunday or
not. But I was born on the 7th day of the month, 1877, and seven
has been a lucky number with me from that day to this. I will say
furthermore that a man who was born out in the country on the farm
and worked six days does not worry about resting on the seventh
day. He is perfectly willing that there be enacted a law providing
for one day of rest in seven.

I wish to say this, that I have introduced a bill for Sunday observ-
ance, but I am not here to push that bill at present. I have asked
that no hearings be held now on that bill simply because I want to
give all of my time to an effort to work out something worth while
for the American farmer. I have that at heart, because I was born
and raised on the farm. I helped plant cotton when I was a boy;
I crawled on my hands and knees and thinned that cotton until I felt
like my back would break; I plowed it day after day until I could
hardly get one foot ahead of the other; then I picked it until my back
was almost blistered in the sun where my waist and trousers did not
happen to come together; and then I saw my father, with that cotton
sinned, go to market, and heard him ask the merchant “How much
will you give me for 1t?”’ saw him sell it, and then walk in the store
and say “How much will I have to give you, Mr. Merchant, for the
coffee pot, for the potash, for the Arm & Hammer brand of soda,’’
and for the various ‘articles that my father bought and carried back
home. I did not believe it was fair for a man who was buying that
cotton we had grown to name the price and also to name the price at
which my father bought the stuff we needed at the home.
hr KincueLoE. What is your theory on the McNary-Haugen